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WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration took aim Monday at what it called "digital guns for hire," unveiling new sanctions against Syria and Iran for using the Internet, social media and other technology to track and target dissidents.

The governments of those countries and some telecommunications companies working with them have used technology to "facilitate grave human rights abuses," the administration said.

"These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them," President Obama said in announcing the sanctions at a speech at theU.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

In its international cyberspace strategy released last year, administration officials said they "encourage people all over the world to use digital media ... and denounce those who harass, unfairly arrest, threaten, or commit violent acts against the people who use these technologies."

The Internet and social media played a pivotal role in the pro-democracy uprisings of last year's Arab Spring, which led to the toppling of repressive regimes in Egypt, Libya and other countries.

The administration said the Syrian government had directed Syriatel, a privately owned telecommunications company that controls 55% of that nation's cellphone market, to cut off network access in areas where the government planned attacks on rebels. The company also recorded mobile phone calls on the government's behalf, the administration said.

Datak Telecom, an Internet service provider in Iran, collaborated with the government there to monitor, track and target people who tried to get around the regime's blocking of Internet content, the administration said.

Datak also assisted in surveillance of Iranians who used a popular commercial email service, and planned to expand the operation to potentially include millions of Iranian Internet users, according to the White House.

The administration targeted those companies, along with Syrian and Iranian government agencies and people who directed the surveillance operations, for financial sanctions and bans on U.S. visas. One person specifically named was Ali Mamluk, who the administration said oversaw a communications program by the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate that was directed at opposition groups.

Mamluk worked with Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security to provide the Syrian government with training in the use of Internet monitoring technology, the administration said. He also requested Iran's help with monitoring social networks, it said.

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U.S. hits Syria, Iran with sanctions for Internet, tech abuses

(Editors note: This is part two of a four-part series to get people in the community thinking about ways they can help prevent child abuse.)

Internet Safety Tips

With advances in modern technology, children today have opportunities for unlimited access to information.

The Internet can be a gateway to learning about different cultures, connecting with people all over the world and expanding exposure to virtually endless topics of interest. However, technology can also be a means to compromise the safety of children.

Cattaraugus County Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb, a member of the Southern Tier Child Advocacy Center Multidisciplinary Team Council, said parents and caregivers need to take steps to protect children from electronic predators.

Children can easily stumble into inappropriate or even dangerous situations and exchanges, he said. You wouldnt let your children explore a major city by themselves without supervision or ground rules. The Internet and cell phones are no different. Kids need guidance navigating this new world.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This is the final article in a four-part series designed to educate parents and caregivers about steps they can take to protect children.

Southern Tier Health Care System CEO Donna Kahm said the information revolution enables people to bring information from around the world into their homes. But the technology has also opened homes and private lives to potential threats.

The Internet offers almost unlimited educational and entertainment opportunities but there are risks that most kids arent aware of, she said. Its up to us, as adults, to teach them how to protect themselves.

Sheriff Whitcomb said a child may be at risk online if he or she:

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Internet, phone safety important part of parenting

Samuel LaHoz

A group of experts faced off on the motion "When It Comes to Politics, the Internet Is Closing Our Minds" at an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate on April 17 in New York City.

On the Internet, it's easy to find like-minded people and to frequent sites whose content you already agree with. And the online world is increasingly tailored to individual preferences and interests including search engines serving up more personalized results for your queries.

But are we running the risk of getting trapped in information bubbles, where all we read and see falls in line with our political views?

A group of experts took on that topic in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate. They faced off two-against-two in an Oxford-style debate on the motion "When It Comes to Politics, the Internet Is Closing Our Minds."

Before the debate, the audience at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University voted 28 percent for the motion and 37 percent against, with 35 percent undecided. Afterward, the vote was 53 percent for the motion, with 36 percent against meaning the side arguing the Internet is closing our minds carried the debate. (Eleven percent remained undecided.)

The April 17 debate was moderated by ABC News' John Donvan. Those debating were:

FOR THE MOTION

Eli Pariser (left) and Siva Vaidhyanathan argued that "When It Comes To Politics, The Internet Is Closing Our Minds."

Eli Pariser (left) and Siva Vaidhyanathan argued that "When It Comes To Politics, The Internet Is Closing Our Minds."

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Is The Internet Closing Our Minds Politically?

Vinton Cerf, considered one of the fathers of the internet for co-designing the TCP/IP protocol, was inducted into ISOC's Hall of Fame Monday.

GENEVA, Switzerland The best revolutionaries eventually find themselves hailed in tributes and enshrined in museums.

So its almost inevitable that nearly 30 years after the official birthdate of the internet, some of the nets best-known pioneers, radicals, and troublemakers are being inducted into the Internet Societys Hall of Fame.

The inaugural group includes 33 of the nets most influential engineers, evangelists and entrepreneurs including internet fathers Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf; internet standards guru Jon Postel; web inventor Tim Berners-Lee; encryption pioneer Phil Zimmerman; and Mozillas Mitchell Baker.

And, yes, snarky late night comedy aside former vice president Al Gore is being inducted as well.

The inductees were announced Monday in Geneva, Switzerland at Internet Societys annual conference, where the group is celebrating its 20th year. ISOC is home to the Internet Engineering Task Force, the nets technical standards setting body, and is funded largely by the .org top level domain.

While the internets origins are firmly based in American university computer labs and DARPA, the U.S. militarys long-term research arm, Geneva is a natural home for the awards. The World Wide Web was born here at Cern, just a few kilometers from the conference center, and Switzerland has a long history as an international center for diplomacy symbolically important for an organization dedicated to including civil society, engineers, corporations and governments in decisions affecting the net.

But as the revolutionaries celebrate having created the worlds most important communications medium, they also murmur about looming threats to their creation. This year saw the U.S. government push to modify the nets infrastructure to protect the business model of the music and motion picture industry in the U.S., setting off a dramatic protest in the U.S. Around the globe, repressive and authoritarian regimes have reacted to political dissent by installing filters, firewalls and first-world surveillance technologies.

Geneva is also home to the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. arm that sets rules, standards and rates for international telecommunications, and parts of whose membership has been making noise about exerting more state control over internet governance. That move seen to be driven by non-democratic countries including Russia, China and states in the Middle East is seen as by many at ISOC as a threat to the the core principles of the internet.

But despite those looming clouds, the internets founders and visionaries have much to celebrate. Some two billion people around the world are connected to the internet, where they can communicate locally and globally for virtually no-cost and have access to knowledge, news and gossip at a speed and depth imaginable 30 years ago only by a small handful of people many of whom are being inducted into the hall of fame for envisioning and building that network of networks.

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The Internet Gets a Hall of Fame (Including Al Gore!)

WASHINGTON For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org, that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

LONG ARM OF SCOFFLAW: An online ad scam is having some unintended ramifications: The fix may prevent as many as 360,000 from getting online. Several sites will show if you're infected:

DNS Changer Working Group: can discern whether youre infected and explain how to fix the problem.

DNSChanger Eye Chart: if the site goes red, youre in harms way. Green means clean.

The FBI website: type in the IP address of your DNS server to find out if it is infected.

Read more on how to stay safe

Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.

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Internet Alert: Will Virus Shut Off Your Connection?